Akufo-Addo Finally Scraps Amorphous Senior Minister Portfolios, Others

The sobering aftermath of the New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s loss of many seats in Parliament is telling on President Akufo-Addo, who has finally decided to winnow out a number of duplicitous, Ministries that he had created in his first term.
Leading the wave of what many are calling good riddance is the amorphous portfolio of “Senior Minister.” The President is scrapping this Ministry totally.

Other nebulous Ministries are to be absorbed under already existing Ministries according to a release from Jubilee House spokesman, Eugene Arhin.
This is to enable the government to cut down the record 126 Ministers to 85.
During his first term, Akufo-Addo had justified the over-bloated government he had appointed, claiming that he needed the huge number of Ministers in order to transform Ghana.
However, at the end of the first four-year tenure, the President could not even face a Presidential debate over his stewardship.

Voters would eventually kick out a number of MPs of the government who doubled as ministers. 
Reports have it that the President met with his Ministers yesterday and informed them of the decision to clear out seven of the 36 Ministers he had appointed. He is said to have wished those he has hacked out well and promised that they may be considered for other roles in the government.

According to Mr. Arhin, seven Ministries – Aviation, Business Development, Inner City and Zongo Development, Monitoring and Evaluation, Planning, Regional Re-organisation and Development, and Special Development Initiatives, have been realigned. 
The claim is that the President has effected this realignment because virtually all these special-purpose Ministries have achieved the purposes for which they were established. 

Interestingly, the Zongo Development Ministry has been adjudged by many people in the Zongos as being a complete failure with these inner-city shanty towns still in the state in which they were met by the Akufo-Addo government during the commencement of its first term in 2017.

The President intends to appoint a Minister for Public Enterprises, who will be operating from the Presidency, rather than a Ministry.
This Minister will oversee a major restructuring of the entire state-owned enterprises sector.

 A Minister of State has reportedly, also been nominated to be assigned to the Ministry of Works and Housing, after approval, to give special focus to affordable public housing. He will work together with a substantive Minister.
In all, President Akufo-Addo will appoint a total of 30 Ministers, and 16 Regional Ministers, bringing the total number of Ministers to 46. Eight of this number are women – six Ministers and two Regional Ministers.

 The list of 46 will be submitted to Parliament by the President on Thursday.
In the new calibration, the Inner City and Zongo Development Ministry will be subsumed by the Presidency, with a Co-coordinator appointed to supervise, as well as exercise oversight responsibility over the Zongo Development Fund.

 The newly-renamed Ministry of Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development will oversee the outstanding activities of the erstwhile Regional Re-organization and Development Ministry.

 Meanwhile, the Aviation Ministry is to be merged into an enlarged Ministry of Transport, with activities of the Ministry of Planning also being subsumed under the Ministry of Finance, while the Business Development Ministry is to be merged with the Ministry of Trade and Industry.